"Life is hard when you don’t know who you are. It’s harder when you don’t know *what* you are. ...
I was lost for years. Searching while hiding. ...
I won’t hide anymore. I will live the life I choose."
-- Bo Dennis, "Lost Girl"

therefore, be it resolved that: this blog is intended for mature readers.

However, this blog is not age-restricted.

Monday, January 11, 2016

A Sense of Perspective on Liberty? Part 6, or, Okay, Let Me Tell You AGAIN Why I Support Senator Sanders for President

A Sense of Perspective on Liberty?

Part 6,

Or, "Okay, Let Me Tell You Again

Why I Support Senator Sanders for President,"

by Liviana (Giovanna L.)

Yet again, I am asked why I am supporting Bernie Sanders instead of someone else. Well, gee, Wally, maybe because I believe in the things he believes in, things which some other candidates either oppose vehemently or merely give lip-service to? Here, then, read and learn why I am supporting Bernie Sanders (I've liberally sprinkled the text with links to back up what I'm saying, and put in a few pictures because I wanted to):

Senator Sanders is an actual Leftist (this is NOT a bad word!), not a "less-far-to-the-Right-than-the-Republicans-ist" (Hell, at this point, even Mussolini is almost less to the Right than some Republicans [and I don't believe I need to justify this assertion in any way, thanks to Herr Trump, whom even some public figures in his own party are calling out for his views], so being "less Right Wing than the Republicans" is not exactly sufficient for my vote). Senator Sanders believes in Progressive values and will not cave at the first sign of resistance like a "Nu Democrat" will. He will give us change for the better, and not the mediocrity of business as usual, nor a descent into the maelstrom of madness.

Bernie Sanders is pissed off about most if not all of the same things I'm pissed off about, and he supports most if not all of the ideals I hold dear.

No, Hillary. Some of us know you're just a Right Winger in "Liberal" clothing.

Senator Sanders has a long -- and consistent --history of fighting for liberty, justice, and equality for all. He was active in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, and supported LGBTI rights as early as the 1970s, and is the only 2016 Presidential candidate who voted against DOMA. He also stands firmly for Women's Reproductive Rights.

Not being the beneficiary of dark money contributions, Bernie Sanders has no vested interest in wearing kid gloves when dealing with campaign finance reform. Of what other candidate can this be said? Not a one.

While some are busy trying to pit the Middle Class and the Less Fortunate against one another, Bernie is willing to go after the 1% who are not paying their fair share. That current situation means that the burden of taxation falls on the Middle Class and the Less Fortunate are resented for even the subsistence level benefits they receive.

Bernie Sanders believes in social and economic justice, in uniting us against our common foe, instead of trying to divide us so that the foe can continue to live a life of luxury. He will work for making education available to all, and not merely the "fortunate son." He will endeavor to patch the safety net, and his plan is sound. And, contrary to the fear-mongering, his plan will NOT bankrupt the nation by these efforts.

Senator Sanders is an advocate of a living wage, recognizing that, no matter what job someone does, if they put in 40 hours a week for wages, they deserve better than they're currently getting. And no, this isn't going to hurt the Middle Class like business publications claim. It's going to decrease some of the massive profits that the huge corporations get, though, which, you know, is probably why those business publications are spewing bile about it.

Unlike the candidates from the other party, Senator Sanders will not send young people overseas to die in imperialistic and economic wars, only to pat them on the back and send them on their way if they manage to make it home alive.

And, as noted above, Bernie is not polarizing the way Hillary is; if the Republicans hate anyone more than they hate President Obama, it's Hillary Rodham Clinton, so their ilk will turn out in droves to vote against her, while Bernie has a real chance to win. She's not even, as some would assume, the candidate of the Progressive American Woman. Guess who is. Go on, guess.

He's not gung-ho for "gun control," the perennial cause célèbre of the Democratic Party, which effort blatantly ignores "shall not be infringed," and which will never resonate with voters in the heartland nor any rural area. He did not attempt to exploit recent tragedies to push the same ridiculous un-constitutional proposals that so many "Democrats" started trying to push. We are all of us "innocent until proven guilty" in this nation. Being merely suspected of something is no justification for denying us our Constitutional Rights -- and, lest we all forget, that "no-fly list" bullshit is a product of another Republican régime, one which gave us the attempted dismantling of the Bill of Rights which goes by the euphemistic acronym "USA PATRIOT Act" (and let me point out that Senator Sanders voted against that bit of fascism, for all the right reasons; Ms Clinton, on the other hand, who was also a Senator at the time, voted for it) I'm afraid my confidence is lacking in the Dubya régime's ability to not place political opponents on such a list (especially since many of us saw the same news articles which strongly suggested that that very thing did in fact happen), and some current candidates would like to continue warrantless surveillance and other government spying on our own citizens. To my international friends who may be appalled to read of my support for the Law of the Land in the USA (our Constitution), which includes the 2nd Amendment recognition of the right of the people to keep and bear arms: you're never going to convince this Texas Girl to support "gun control." Prohibition has never worked in any form, and this particular variation on Prohibition cannot be done legally without an Amendment to the Constitution of the USA (and I, for one, do not believe the Constitution should ever be amended except to expand the list of rights recognized by the government and improve our political system itself, but never to deny rights).

So, you want to know, again, why I'm supporting Senator Bernie Sanders for President? These are a few of my reasons. I can go on, if you wish, but I think I've made my point. Let me ask you, then: "Why wouldn't I support Bernie Sanders? Why wouldn't any rational person support him?"

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About the Author

"Liviana" is the philosophical nom de plume of Giovanna Laine, in a nod to the practice among the American thinkers who debated Confederation and Federalism during the late 1700s, writing in The Federalist Papers and The Anti-Federalist Papers under such Roman noms de plume as Cato, Publius, Brutus, etc.

A philosopher, logician, and linguist by training, a huge fan of Star Trek, a gamer, and a member and supporter of the Green Party of the United States, Miss Laine also loves to cook Italian cuisine. A native Texan, she currently resides somewhere in the wilderness of the American South with three cats, several guitars, a few firearms, and an extensive library of books, magazines, journals, comic books, videos, and music.

And yes, guys, she has a boyfriend.

The Author

"Liviana" (Giovanna Laine)

About the Names

"Liviana" is Latin for "Livia-like," or "Similar to Livia." Several Roman women had the name Livia, including the wife of Augustus Caesar (Livia Drusilla, later known as Julia Augusta, regarded by some historians as "the first Empress of Rome"). The original meaning of livius, livia, and livium would have been "dark bluish grey," and the modern English word "livid" derives from the related Latin word "lividus." "Liviana" as a personal name would therefore mean something like "similar to Livia" (as noted above) in reference to some similarity to another woman whose name was Livia, or "similar to dark bluish grey" in some way.

However, the author adopted the name primarily in honor of the Star Trek character Liviana t'Charvanek (aka Di'on t'Charvon, aka Thea), a Romulan woman who commanded not one Romulan warbird, but a fleet of at least three vessels of the Romulan Star Navy, at a time when women in the United Federation of Planets were not allowed to command even a single starship in Starfleet (later series have retconned this restriction, but it seems to have been regarded as "canon" during the time when TOS was in production and for some time afterwards):

Livia is a Latin name (the feminine form of "Livius" and not a short form of "Olivia," although it certainly can be used as such), and not Hebrew. The Hebrew word confused with "Livia" on a few baby name websites is actually "Lavi" ("L'via" or "Levia" in modern Hebrew), which means "Lioness," and which is linguistically unrelated to the Latin name "Livia." The transliterated /v/ in "Lavi" represents a "doubled" Hebrew letter Beth, with the sound of an English /v/, while the /v/ in "Livia" is in no need of transliteration, but represents the sound of an English /w/ in Classical Latin. Thus, LAH-vee or lə-VEE-ah versus LIH-wee-ə exposes the reality that the seeming similarity is an illusion based solely on orthography without phonetic basis. Moreover, the etymology of the two names also varies, with one deriving from Proto-Canaanite (a Semitic language) and the other from Proto-Italic (an Indo-European language); the two names do not even have the same meaning. No doubt should exist that "Livia" is a Latin (Roman) name, at least for anyone with formal training in Linguistics and Classical Latin.

The blog is called "Random Musings from a Muse," because the author may discuss (or "muse upon") a wide variety of (seemingly "random") topics, ranging from philosophy and logic to linguistic matters and even her latest culinary experiment, in the hope of inspiring others to think and create (and so she seeks to act as a "muse" in some sense).